In 1969, author Theodore Roszak took his first look at the boomer generation with his award-winning social commentary, The Making of a Counter Culture. Now — 40 years later — he returns to the subject, examining the way in which the past countercultural values of this "audacious generation" can be made relevant to an elder-dominated society.

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Foreword  ~  Download Chapters 1-3  ~  Chapters 4-6

Theodore Roszak is the author of 15 works of nonfiction and five novels. He was educated at UCLA and Princeton and has taught at Stanford, the University of British Columbia, San Francisco State University and the State University of California – East Bay.

Second online installment is published…

Chapters 4-6 of The Making of an Elder Culture may now be downloaded from the Second Journey Web site by clicking on the link below. The questions below suggest some of the provocative topics explored in the new chapters.

The “entitlement society” is a frequent target of conservatives. But might we not look at entitlements — to health care or a living wage, for example — as a further and more perfect extension of the natural rights on which our country was founded?

Have you ever thought of health care as an economy — rather than a vast fiscal waste? Compare the healthcare economy with the automotive or high tech economy of earlier eras. Which is a better use of resources and skill? If the elder culture leads into a healthcare economy, will that be a disaster — or a blessing?

In light of our recent financial debacle, how unrealistically “utopian” do the prescriptions of progressive thinkers of the 1960s — Paul Goodman, Kenneth Galbraith, and Robert Theobald — now seem, especially with respect to consumption?